Let’s Talk about Panettone

Oh, how I miss my beloved Gourmet Magazine. I was so angry when Conde Nast chose to discontinue publishing of Gourmet over Bon Apetit. How could you possibly choose to make Ruth Reichl go away? What were you thinking?!

Remnants of the magazine remain out there (thank you Internet) and I was pleased to find just the recipe I was looking for to start my December food posts on holiday foods – Jim Lahey’s recipe for Panettone. Lahey is an artisanal baker so the recipe is slower than many due to additional rising time, but the bread is easy to make and worth the wait.

Panettone is a sweet bread originally from Milan that is traditionally enjoyed at Christmas and New Year‘s. The bread is shaped like a cupola with a cylindrical base. It’s moist and delicious and stale slices make great French toast.

You can download a PDF that is a scan of the original article from the December 2008 Gourmet Magazine from Jim Lahey’s website. It’s got all the details, great photos, and the recipe. You’ll find it here. The recipe as given by the blogger at The Lost World of Drfugwe is below:

Procedure:

Soak raisins in rum and 2 Tbs hot water (8 hours or overnight).

Mix flour, sugar, salt, yeast, lemon zest, and vanilla bean in stand mixer bowl with paddle until well mixed. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, the honey, and the 2/3 cup of tepid water. With mixer at low speed, slowly pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture up speed to medium low, and continue mixing until well combined. Add 10 Tbs softened butter, 1 Tbs at a time, mixing until well incorporated between additions (Frozen/cold butter softens nicely in the microwave, but since each is sooo different, youll have to experiment to find the perfect time for yours mine would be soft in about 15-25 seconds for this chunk.).

Increase mixer speed to med high and mix until dough is smooth and elastic about 8 minutes.

Drain raisins and mix with chopped fruit and 1 Tbs melted butter stir into the dough mixture with a wooden spoon.

Put mixture into a large bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and put into a cold oven for 12-15 hours.

Lightly flour a board, and put the dough on the board remove the vanilla bean, and sprinkle a light dusting of flour over the dough pull the edges of the dough up onto itself, and turn it over into a ball.

Prepare your Panettone mold with either a paper liner or a piece of bakers parchment held with a paper clip move the dough into the mold, cover with a damp kitchen towel (not terry), and put in a warm spot where it can rise for 3-5 hours.

With an hour left in the dough rising time, turn your oven on to 370 degrees, and heat.

Cut an X in the top of the risen Panettone, and place the remaining Tbs of cold butter in the middle of the X Put the Panettone mold/can on a baking sheet/pan and bake for an hour to an hour and a quarter I needed 1 and hours test doneness with a skewer; it should be moist but clean if you see dough, give it another 5-10 minutes.

When done, remove from oven, and remove from mold/can measure 1 inch from the bottom of the Panettone and slide 4 skewers through the bottom from one side to the other now suspend the Panettone upside down into a large stock pot (or two chairs), and let it cool completely, about 1 hour.

Weekend Cooking

is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews,recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog’s home page. For more information, see the welcome post.